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At the start of the year, we are always thinking about goals like losing extra weight, eating healthier, and managing our finances more efficiently, but what about wildly important goals? Have you ever set a goal so challenging that it takes you beyond your limits and changes you forever?

Today’s guest is Mark Divine. He is a former Navy SEAL commander, founder of SEALfit, and author of The Unbeatable Mind. His book was the inspiration for The Dad Edge and he was the first big guest on the show. Mark Divine just completed a burpee challenge to raise money and awareness for veteran suicides, which occur at the horrifying rate of every 22 seconds. This wasn’t a one-time event, but a year-long commitment of doing 300 burpees every single day.

Mark talks about how he pulls through and even thrives on these kinds of challenges. It’s not all grit. He uses breathing techniques, yoga, meditation, and intuition. You will be awed by the insights he shares in this interview. Save this episode to stay connected to your goals so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor at the end of this year.

Do you ever feel the urge to declutter your life? Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin? Do you sometimes feel overworked and underutilized? Are you frequently busy without getting any closer to your goals?

Most of us in this day and age feel perpetually busy and overwhelmed with little energy and time to spend on the things in life that matter the most to us.

Today we have a very special guest, Greg McKeown, the NY Times bestselling author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. He shares astonishing insights on how family life has changed throughout the centuries, how our behavioral systems impact future generations, and how to design our lives to focus on essentials so we can stay connected with our long-term visions. You’ll want to save this epic episode!

Greg McKeown

Greg McKeown is married with four children, but to him the word ‘family’ includes parents, in-laws, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. Greg says only recently has the meaning of family shifted from the extended intergenerational family to today’s idea of the nuclear family. Growing up as one of six children, it’s important for Greg to think of himself as part of this larger familial structure.

Greg’s driving force to write Essentialism was when he realized how pathetically short life is. The older we get, the more quickly it seems to fly by. We are constantly busy and distracted. He cites the stoic philosopher Seneca, who wrote about the dangers of busyness 2,000 years ago. Our culture values an existence where we feel like we have to do everything. Our lives are crammed, pushing out the few vital things that will mean the most to us at the end of our lives.

What You’ll Learn

The Planning Fallacy – no matter how well you plan, things will take much longer than you thought

How to figure out which projects to take on

How to push past the guilt factor of not “doing it all”

Practicing the 100 Years Value Exercise: How to envision the impact your life will have in this world by imagining 100 years into the past and future

How your role as a dad can impact future generations, even if they won’t remember you

How to build systems for your role as a dad with cascading priorities

How to hold sacred time to design each week according to your essentials

Why you should write on paper instead of a digital device

3 Things to Write Down Each Day

One insight

One memory

One decision

How the Industrial Revolution shifted our focus from family to industry

How we follow obsolete living strategies that we didn’t choose

How to choose which parts of our cultural strategies work for us

How to analyze the ‘because’ part of a situation to drill down to what really matters

how every time we say ‘yes’ to something that won’t impact our future, we are robbing our time for what is essential

We live in a world where we are drowning in distraction. It seems that everything is fighting for our attention. This causes our minds to become over-stimulated and reactionary.

In our last show, Jim Kwik told us how to turn on our superhero brain. In this short episode, I go over the elements he suggested for a morning routine that will optimize our brain for focus and productivity.

Don’t check your device

Try to remember your dreams

Make your bed

Brush your teeth with opposite hand

Drink water

Do deep breathing exercises

Take a cold shower

Make a brain tea

Exercise

Gratitude

Make a brain power smoothie

Create a “not to do” list

Announcement: We are changing the name of the podcast in a couple weeks to the Dad Edge Podcast. There will be no change in the content or the website. You’ll just see the new show name and logo.